Category Archives for Culinary experiments

… during growing season? Maybe they write in their own blogs instead of reading everyone else’s. Or, they’re more facile than I.

We’re down to five ducks now – two girls and three boys. We had to go away for part of the weekend and didn’t have anyone to shut the ducks up at night and let them out in the morning, which means they were out and about in the early morning – coyote time around here. Next trip, I’ll have a contingency pet-minder lined up. I think I’ll give Holderread Farm a call and query them about proper duck female/male ratio. They’re all getting along well now, and I’d like to keep it that way. They’re certainly earning their keep in the slug and mosquito control department – not to mention the cute factor. 😉

Curious, one of our Black Sex Link hens became eggbound last weekend. We did all the right things for her, but she just couldn’t pass the egg and succumbed. 😦 Given the fact that we feed them proper layer feed, oyster shell, and let them free-range from Noon ’til they put themselves to bed at dusk, I was surprised that any of them would get eggbound. There was an out-of-the-blue exceedingly loud thunderstorm, though, so my theory is that Curious freaked. We still have seven hens plus the rooster, and they’re all feeling just fine. I’m hoping Licorice will go broody again.

I’ve got lettuce, carrots, tomatoes, and green beans all ready to harvest every day now, and the herb garden has exploded again. The ubiquitous blackberries have started to ripen as well. I made pea pod wine on Tuesday, will make lemon balm wine this week, and blackberry wine next week – once I’ve managed to pick up some pectic enzyme. Herb butters need to be made too, along with blackberry jam. I think I’ll freeze the green beans we don’t eat right away. The ever-bearing strawberries have started up again, but the June-bearing beds need runner control and leaf clipping. Busy, busy, busy…

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This year I was the Chair for the 27th Annual Medieval Faire. Between that, homeschooling, homemaking, garden chores, the SCA newsletter I publish every month, and just being a mommy, I haven’t had time to blog at all. Things are easing up, now, so I hope to get back into the swing of this writing thing. 😉

This week I made 8 & 1/2 pints of strawberry jam from my own strawberries. I think I’ll make strawberry wine next, along with balm wine and sage wine.

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Today I dug up some of my horseradish for the first time. Thinking I only needed a little bit, I picked a small root. Well, once I’d peeled and grated it, I couldn’t help but notice that the sinus-clearing pungency was sorely lacking. Since I dug up said root for the delectation of my heat-addicted father-in-law in the first place, I realized that would never do. So, back to the patch I went to dig up a more hardened, sizeable root. This time, peeling and pulverizing produced the necessary tearing of my ducts – though no clearing of my eight-year-old’s vexy sinuses. The ultimate test will be said father-in-law’s addition of the shreddings to mayonnaise later this evening. Stay tuned…